US security firm Blackwater on Jan. 6 reached a settlement agreement in seven federal lawsuits filed by Iraqi citizens. The suits claimed that Blackwater, now known as Xe, created a reckless culture that resulted in numerous deaths, including the deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians in September 2007 and the 2006 killing of an Iraqi guard. The suits accused Blackwater founder Erik Prince of personal responsibility. The terms of the settlement have not been made public, but Xe said in a statement that it is "pleased" with the resolution.

If anyone was celebrating the new year last evening, it must have been the five Blackwater guards charged in the massacre of 17 innocent Iraqi civilians in Nisur Square, Baghdad, two years ago. On New Years Eve afternoon, Judge Ricardo Urbina of the DC District Court dismissed all criminal charges against them, on the basis that their indictment was procured—twice in fact—using statements they made to State Department investigators under threat of losing their jobs. In the United States, coerced confessions are inadmissible as evidence, and cannot be presented to a grand jury in order to obtain an indictment.

A bomb ripped through a procession marking Ashura in the northern Iraqi town of Tuz Khurmatu, outside Kirkuk, killing five and wounding 27, including five women and one police officer. The attack came a day after three Shi'ites were killed when bombs struck separate Ashura processions in Baghdad. Over the past six days, 32 have been killed and more than 160 wounded in violence targeting Ashura, including attacks on worshippers in Karbala and Baghdad. (AFP, Dec. 28)

Three bomb blasts in Iraq killed more than 30 people and injured 75 others as the Shi'ite Ashura ceremonies opened Dec. 24. Double explosions struck near a bus station in Hilla, Babil province, killing 14 police and a provincal councillor. Another blast came about 15 minutes later when police arrived. Authorities said the attacks targeted Shi'ite pilgrims who gathered near the bus station. In Baghdad's Sadr City, a bomb planted near a funeral tent killed eight people and wounded another 33. In the Shi'ite sacred city of Karbala, where pilgrims were converging for Ashura ceremonies culminating, another bomb killed one and wounded 12.

Iran and Iraq have decided to establish an arbitration commission to clear up the conflict over an oil well in the border region. In a telephone conversation between Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari Dec. 19, the two sides agreed to settle border disputes. The de-escalation came one day after Iraq accused Iranian forces of seizing an oil well in Iraqi territory, and mobilized its own forces to the scene.

Former US soldier Steven Green Nov. 30 challenged the law used to convict him in civilian court for his role in the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the murder of her family in Mahmudiya. Green filed an appeal in the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit seeking to overturn the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA), which gives the US federal courts jurisdiction over cases involving crimes committed overseas by people serving in the US armed forces. He is arguing that he should not have been tried in civilian court but rather a military trial. Green is also challenging the validity of his discharge from the military, which enabled him to be tried in civilian court under MEJA.

The Iraqi parliament Nov. 22 failed to resolve an impasse threatening to delay the country's election—which could affect the US military's plans for a partial pullout next year. There are only days left for parliament to address Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi's veto of an election law, as the law must be passed 60 days before the vote, which has been scheduled for Jan. 23. The election law was approved on Nov. 8 after weeks of wrangling between Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen over how to hold the vote in the city of Kirkuk. (WP, Nov. 22)

Last week saw a disturbing turn of events in a lawsuit brought by 64 family members of victims of the Blackwater/Xe private security contractor against its owner and CEO, Erik Prince, for the 2007 massacre in Nisur Square, Baghdad, and other shooting incidents in Iraq. After attorneys for the victims settled the case for an undisclosed sum of money, some of the victims objected, leaving their lawyers in the unenviable position of having to argue to a federal judge that they didn't have their clients' permission to settle it. What should have been a public airing of the notorious business practices of the "world's largest private army" has now become an investigation, by Blackwater/Xe, of the victims and their relationship with their lawyers.